Elias Pettersson celebrates his 20th birthday as Canucks visit the Rangers (antoine roussel)

antoine roussel

Elias Pettersson celebrates his 20th birthday as Canucks visit the Rangers

By Carol Schram

Nov 12, 2018 • 2:56 pm

0comment-bubble

Monday November 12 - Vancouver Canucks at New York Rangers - 4 p.m. - Sportsnet Pacific, Sportsnet 650

Vancouver Canucks: 18 GP, 10-6-2, 22 pts, first in Pacific Division New York Rangers: 17 GP, 8-7-2, 18 pts, fourth in Metropolitan Division

First things first. No more "Most xxx's by a teenager" accolades for Elias Pettersson!

Pettersson comes into Monday night's game at the World's Most Famous Arena mired in the first two-game goalless drought of his young NHL career. Will he unveil another work of art tonight?

He drew comparisons to Wayne Gretzky after his slap-shot goal on Jimmy Howard last week. The Great One shared a few thoughts on our boy on Vancouver sports radio on Monday morning.

Even with just one point in his last two games and those six games missed due to his concussion, Pettersson still has a four-goal and six-point lead over Ottawa's Colin White in the rookie scoring race.

Pettersson had dinner on Sunday night in New York with Rangers' rookie and fellow countryman Lias Andersson, who was selected two spots behind him in the 2017 draft. Notorious for throwing his silver medal into the crowd at the World Junior Championship last January, Andersson started this season in the AHL, then was recalled by the Rangers last week after putting up 12 points in 14 games with the Hartford Wolf Pack. Andersson is pointless in three NHL games so far this season, but picked up a goal and an assist in a seven-game audition with the Rangers at the end of the 2017-18 campaign.

Monday will mark the Canucks' first look at the Rangers under new head coach David Quinn. The Metro has been a tumultuous division so far this year—just three points currently separate first place from seventh. The two wild-card spots in the East have been held by Atlantic Division teams through the early part of the season, so the Metro's playoff teams are changing virtually every day.

Despite the fact that they're supposed to be rebuilding, the Rangers are right the mix. The Canucks are 4-0-2 in their last six games but the Rangers are one point better, at 5-0-1. That's an impressive turnaround after they won just three of their first 11 games; they're now over .500 for the first time this season.

The wins have come thanks to an uptick in offense. Overall, the Rangers are still tied with Carolina and Edmonton for 26th overall at 2.71 goals per game, but they've scored 19 times during in the last six games—and won three shootouts. Not bad, but it pales compared to the high-powered Canucks, who have put up 29 goals (!) in their last six games—and lost two shootouts.

After a day off on Sunday, here's how Travis Green deployed his lines at Monday's morning skate:

Not too surprising to see Antoine Roussel skating with Bo Horvat and Loui Eriksson after a good showing in that spot against Buffalo on Saturday.

Jacob Markstrom is expected to make his 10th-straight start in net for the Canucks tonight—hopefully feeling refreshed after putting Saturday's loss behind him.

After serving as Markstrom's backup for the last two weeks, I would expect that Richard Bachman will see his first NHL action of the year on Tuesday against the New York Islanders. It's worth noting, though, that Darcy Kuemper pulled a rare back-to-back for Arizona this weekend while Antti Raanta is sidelined with an injury. Kuemper gave up four goals in the Coyotes' shutout loss to Pittsburgh on Saturday, but stopped 38-of-39 to give his team a 4-1 win over Washington on Sunday.

For the Rangers—yep, it's 36-year-old workhorse Henrik Lundqvist in net. The King has started 13 of New York's 17 games so far this season and is 5-6-2 with a .921 save percentage and 2.65 GAA—an improvement over his numbers from the last two seasons. In his career, he's 8-5-0 with two shutouts against the Canucks.

The Rangers are expected to be without Mats Zuccarello tonight. He has missed the last two games with a groin strain. Pavel Buchnevich has also just been moved to injured reserve after breaking his thumb against Columbus on Saturday. On the blue line, Frederik Claesson is back for his second game after missing nine with an upper-body injury. His return has bumped Brendan Smith back to healthy-scratch status.

I'll close with a podcast note: Kevin Bieksa was a tremendous guest last week on "31 Thoughts" with Elliotte Friedman and Jeff Marek. He's not yet officially retired—word is that he had some offers to play this year but decided to stick close to his current home base in Southern California. But he is maintaining his fitness and hasn't ruled out the possibility of a return to hockey if he feels the urge.

Tons of Canucks content in the podcast. My favourite part was when he talked about the fake health-and-nutrition advice that he has dished out to unsuspecting teammates over the years. Bieksa also talks a bit about the protection of Elias Pettersson and how he used to use on-ice threats to help keep the peace during his time in Vancouver.

Here's the link. Bieksa's appearance starts at about the 55 minute mark and runs around 30 minutes.

Enjoy the game!

Show Comments
Loading...
Loading...
Loading sidebar...
0
Show comments for this article